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Thuan An Paper Service Trading Joint Stock Company has commissioned a 250,000 tonne/yr recycled containerboard machine at a new mill in Binh Phuoc province, in southeastern Vietnam.
The first sheet of board rolled off the line in early February.
Chinese supplier Shanghai Qingliang Industry provided the BM, from headbox to reel. The unit has a trim width of 5.4 m and a design speed of 750 m/min.
It is designed to produce 100% recycled fiber-based corrugating medium and linerboard in a basis weight range of 90-200 g/m2.
Apart from the freshly-started BM, Thuan An Paper also runs a small mill with less than 100,000 tonnes/yr of recycled containerboard capacity in the neighbouring province of Binh Duong.
More supply coming: Vietnam’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 7.1% in 2018, the fastest rate in the past 11 years, with 12.98% growth in the manufacturing segment.
The robust, manufacturing-led economy has attracted domestic and foreign investment in the country’s packaging board sector.
China imposing stringent curbs on solid waste imports since the beginning of 2018 has resulted in cheap recovered paper (RCP) and recyclable plastic flooding other Asian countries, including Vietnam.
The Vietnamese government has tightened the regulatory screws on such imports, including the enforcement of a 2% contaminant limit for incoming RCP, enforced through the physical inspection of containers.
RCP suppliers report having recently suspended the sale of mixed paper to Vietnam for fear of rejection.
But notwithstanding the increasingly strict regulations in Vietnam, RCP costs there are still lower than in China, and RCP-based production projects interesting.
Vietnamese packaging company Dong Hai Joint Stock is reportedly fine-tuning a new 200,000 tonne/yr recycled containerboard machine at its existing Giao Long mill in Chau Thanh, Ben Tre province.
Japanese paper and board dealer and manufacturer Marubeni has announced it will build a 350,000 tonne/yr packaging board mill in Ba Ria-Vung Tau province, with commercial operations scheduled for H2 2020 or H1 2021.